CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — For the first time in program annals, Iowa State football will compete in a league filled with teams that look like it, spend like it and not tower above it.
No longer will Iowa State and its Big 12 brethren compete alongside programs that dwarfed them in budget, history, stadium size and recruiting prowess. Texas and Oklahoma are off to the SEC, and Pac-12 refugees Colorado, Utah, Arizona State and Arizona join the latest iteration of Big 12 football. Every program in the new-look conference has varying histories, but competition level rates as even.
For the Cyclones, the Big 12’s new era brings anticipation. None of the league’s 16 members generated more revenue from football ticket sales in fiscal 2023 than Iowa State ($16.19 million). The football program featured the second-largest home attendance (60,384) among current and new conference peers, just a shade behind BYU (61,944). And no team in the country boasts more returning production (86 percent, per ESPN’s Bill Connelly) this fall than the Cyclones.
It’s no wonder the annual Cyclone Caravan, which brings Iowa State coaches and officials across the state together every spring, features large and enthusiastic crowds. Dreams that once required perfection or aberration now are shaped by reality. Iowa State not only could win its first conference championship since 1912, but in doing so, it almost certainly would earn a bye in the College Football Playoff. And it has the potential to remain competitive for the long haul.
“You couldn’t ask for the stars to have lined up any better for us from coaching, continuity, facilities, our team returning players’ production, last year’s success,” ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard said. “Everything has put us in the best possible position if you’re going to go into this new era. Now, I’m not saying that guarantees you success.
“Whether it was luck, strategy, it doesn’t matter. We put ourselves in the position you’d want to be in going into a new era, and that is exciting.”
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With nine starters returning on both offense and defense, plus one of the nation’s top punters, Iowa State has a sturdy foundation for high expectations. As a redshirt freshman last fall, quarterback Rocco Becht threw for 3,120 yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 62.9 percent of his passes. ISU’s receiving tandem of Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins combined for 119 receptions, 1,803 yards and 13 touchdowns last year. True freshman running back Abu Sama III ripped through Kansas State in a snowstorm for 276 yards in last year’s season finale. No power conference school had more plays of 50-plus yards than Iowa State.
Abu Sama III recorded a season-long 77-yard run in the Cyclones’ win against Kansas State last season. (Scott Sewell / USA Today)
Sama, who led Iowa State with 614 rushing yards, doesn’t count as a returning starter, but there are five returning offensive linemen who opened at least five games last year. The defense lost cornerback T.J. Tampa in the NFL Draft but brings back a unit that allowed just 12 rushing touchdowns (14th nationally), a 55.8 completion percentage (12th) and was tenacious in red zone scoring defense (73.1 percent, sixth). Coach Matt Campbell calls safety Beau Freyler’s leadership “unparalleled” and on par with former quarterback Brock Purdy.
A Big 12 championship doesn’t seem so far-fetched with an efficient quarterback, explosive playmakers, a veteran offensive line and an experienced defense. Yet at Iowa State, there’s a tendency to straddle between embracing high expectations and hedging based on past results and overpowering opponents. Fresh in the minds of many were the near misses in the early 2000s with Dan McCarney at the helm. In 2020, Iowa State earned the Big 12’s best record but lost the championship game to Oklahoma after beating the Sooners in the regular season.
“If we’re being completely transparent about football championships, we won an in-season regular-season championship a couple of years ago,” Campbell said. “But other than that, you haven’t had the ability to be a team that’s been able to do that.”
That Campbell, Pollard and the hundreds of Cyclone backers can talk about championships after last summer is a testament to the program’s culture and resilience. In 2022, Iowa State finished 4-8 and won only one Big 12 game. Last May, a state gambling sting engulfed both the Iowa State and Iowa athletic departments. Among those charged criminally and suspended by the NCAA included Iowa State’s starting quarterback, running back, tight end, left tackle and defensive tackle.
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Then after a 1-2 start in 2023, the situation boiled over for the 44-year-old Campbell. As he walked back to the locker room alongside his players after a 3-point loss at Ohio, a fan shouted, “You’re on the hot seat.” As Campbell turned around to confront the spectator, his players held him back. The heavy set of expectations that followed a Fiesta Bowl victory in 2020, coupled with an underachieving 2021 campaign, a disastrous 2022 and the gambling probe seemed to push everyone to their breaking point. But that’s where Campbell recognized what was wrong. His team needed a massage, not a beatdown.
“We had a team meeting after that Ohio game on Sunday,” Campbell said. “It had nothing to do with scheme or lack of effort. It had everything to do with … I feel like everybody was putting so much pressure on yourself to win.
“Pressure, a little bit, is a privilege, but you’ve got to realize your process and how you work Sunday through Friday gives you the confidence to step out there and let that pressure go by the wayside and just go play the game of football like you’re a kid again. After that, I thought our kids really started to turn it on.”
The Cyclones won four of their next five games with home victories against Oklahoma State and 2022 national runner-up TCU. Iowa State won its last four Big 12 road games, including the finale 42-35 at Kansas State. With a 6-3 Big 12 mark, the Cyclones finished with a winning conference record for the sixth time in seven seasons. Before Campbell’s arrival in 2016, Iowa State had only one winning Big 12 season — ever.
It wasn’t just the team that grew last fall; Campbell did as well. He wondered in his first season whether he could turn around Iowa State. But he made necessary schematic changes and set a disciplined, unwavering tone that pushed high achievers like Allen Lazard and David Montgomery to excel. Then with Purdy and Breece Hall at the helm through 2021, Iowa State played as a competitive peer of foes like Oklahoma and Texas. Although the pieces were different, the 2023 turnaround ran parallel to Campbell’s previous iterations.
The gambling-related departures forced players into pivotal roles last summer, which Campbell said was the “saving grace” because it forced his youngest players to grow up fast. Six true freshmen combined for 27 starts, including 13 by middle linebacker Jack Sadowsky and seven by offensive lineman Brendan Black. Becht took the reins last summer and never relinquished them. The process applied to everyone as did the accountability. No step was skipped — even for the coach.
“There are reasons why we weren’t in some of those (games), and certainly start with the head football coach of why we took a step back,” Campbell said. “Believe me, I’ll be the first one knowing those things. But I think there was also a great belief that we’ve got a really special locker room, we’ve got a really special team coming back. Even though we’ve gone through this crazy adversity through May and June, we’ve still got the pieces to get there. But we’re not going to shortcut it just to win a football game. We want to be a great team when it matters the most.”
That attitude reflects maturity in Campbell, who once was considered college football’s rising coaching star. Every time a high-profile job opened, Campbell’s name came up. That shine faded in 2022, but one wouldn’t have known it by how Campbell coached, recruited or represented the program both during his early success and in the midst of his slump.
“He’s kind of matured into being the Iowa State coach,” Pollard said. “After we won the Fiesta Bowl, for most people that have ever been a head football coach at Iowa State, they would say, ‘Well, what you do after that is you leave, right?’ I think coach Campbell is just really comfortable being at Iowa State, I think his family is very comfortable being at Iowa State. The players feed off of that. Everybody kind of feeds off the leader. And when the leader feels like both feet are on the ground, and you’re very comfortable with who you are, it allows you to do some neat things.”
The Big 12’s competitive and financial equality gives Iowa State a legitimate shot at success this fall, and Campbell’s stability ensures the Cyclones have leadership and demonstrated results. Now, it’s about taking the program to a place where it’s never gone.
“When we thought we were going to be good in the past, you always had that cloud of, ‘Well Texas and OU have more resources, they’re going to have better talent,” Pollard said. “I don’t think anybody else that we’re looking across the conference that you would say that.”
“From day one that I got to Iowa State my mission hasn’t changed. We want to bring a football championship home to Iowa State,” Campbell said. “I think there is a clear pathway, and that pathway opens up a lot of doors to a lot of special opportunities that I think a lot of people would have said can never happen here in Ames.”
(Top photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)
2024-05-16 09:05:36
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